Salt Canyon Fire along Highway 115 just north of Florence now 90% contained

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Crews have a wildland fire burning along Highway 115 almost fully contained Wednesday, clearing the scene but monitoring the burn scar overnight.

According to officials with Fort Carson, the fire began Tuesday afternoon, off-post along the highway, then spread into an adjacent a Fort Carson training area.

The Fremont County Sheriff's Office told KRDO dispatch was notified of the fire at 2:02 p.m. When their crews arrived at the scene, there were three separate fires burning.

From there, the sheriff's office notified the Colorado State Patrol, other fire agencies, and Fort Carson.

Fort Carson Fire and Emergency Personnel is the lead department and is working with several external fire departments.

Dubbed the Salt Canyon Fire, crews initially believed the fire had burned 30 acres; however, Fort Carson later clarified it only burned 5 acres.

No structures have been threatened by the fire.

Late Wednesday, Fort Carson revealed that containment on the fire has increased from 65% to 90%.

Firefighters from rural Fremont and El Paso County responded; among them, the Southern Colorado Interagency Wildland Fire Team (SoCo) -- a collaboration of six fire departments in El Paso County that formed in July.

"This is the first significant fire we've had since forming," said Shane Coyne, SoCo superintendent. “You need engines with the water, obviously. But the fire burned into the hillside, so you really need to run hoses up there. But you also need people with chainsaws and hand tools to effectively get control lines around it. So we provided that asset.”

Firefighters said that calm winds Tuesday limited the fire's spread and gave them time to assess it and begin containment efforts.

"If the fire had been today (Wednesday), it would have been worse because there was a red flag warning and stronger winds would have pushed the fire into higher, rougher terrain with plenty of fuels to burn."

The northbound lane was closed for hours Tuesday. Traffic was diverted into the middle lane. At 7:45 p.m., CDOT announced that all lanes were open.

The Colorado Department of Transportation said the fire was burning between County Road F45 and Barrett Road. It's burning roughly 12 miles south of Colorado Springs at mile point 26.

A driver shared this video of the fire. This was taken before 2:50 p.m.

At 2:52 p.m., CDOT said the right lane of Highway 115 was closed between mile point 24 and mile point 25.

Below is a map of roughly where the fire is:

The fire's cause remains under investigation.